Imagine that, a televised ballgame without shots of fans texting their friends or wearing face paint like some lost tribe from the Amazon! How nice to see the old Baby Ruth candy bar sign on the Sheffield Avenue roof top in the days before party decks and rooftop bleachers; I remember that sign well. The Hamms commercial is a real blast from the past: Pettit and Brickhouse were the perfect pitchman for the period. Hamm s beer fans might be interested in knowing that the brewery still stands on St Paul's east side and has recently become home to Flat Earth brewing,a local micro brew.

I watched a little bit of that game and then had to go to my job at Kroger.
There were 11,000 at Wrigley that day which was huge for a weekday Cub game in those days (640,000 for the season) but what I remember most about the Cubs and 1965 was Leo the Lip being hired after the season for the 1966 season. First statement he said was that the Cubs were not an 8th place ball club, he was right they finished 10th in 1966 losing 103 games.
They did turn it around in 67 and had a nice run of winning seasons and a lot of us remember the meltdown in 1969. As Brick used to say "Oh brother".

Thanks for posting, love the Hamms beer commercial. It was weird to see the Reds uniforms with the names under the numbers. I was sort of amazed that Brick did not remember the year of Sad Sam Jones' no hitter in 1955, it was the first no hitter that I remember. As much as I despised the Cubs as I still do, I saw so many more of their games back then on TV and in person because of all the day games, the Sox were only on for home day games also but usually only on Saturdays and Sundays. I really miss those days.

__________________Coming up to bat for our White Sox is the Mighty Mite, Nelson Fox.

Hooked this up to the big screen and watched it this afternoon. Some observations:

I wonder if the focus of the outfield camera was that bad when it was live or just the quality of the tape. The other cameras were almost crisp. I have VCR tapes from the 90's that are about half the quality of this relic. Great find.

The shot of that house across Waveland with the WGN sign on the roof should give people an idea of how sketchy that neighborhood was back then.

The Brickhouse catchphrases "Hoo boy, Hoo brother" and "any old kind of run'll do it." were as common in the 60's as us saying "He gone" now.

One sixty second ad. That was it. Return to the action and the pitcher is ready to throw. No wonder a two hour game wasn't uncommon.

It's hard to believe that the bleachers, scoreboard and ivy were only 27 years old when this game was played. Never realized the ivy was trimmed back below the top of the wall before the baskets were installed. Loved how they used the scoreboard to show the score at the end of the inning instead of any graphic.

Pete Rose coming to bat without a helmet was something to see. And a couple of times the batter picked up the catcher's mask, dusted it off, and politely handed it back to the catcher after a foul ball (including once by Frank Robinson, who'd I'd always heard was a jerk). I don't think you'd ever see that nowadays in MLB.

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The Brickhouse catchphrases "Hoo boy, Hoo brother" and "any old kind of run'll do it." were as common in the 60's as us saying "He gone" now. ...

In the 1990s, I was watching the end of a nationally televised Cubs game with a Cubs fans in my office, going into the bottom of the ninth trailing by four runs. In my best Jack Brickhouse, I said, "any old kind of a five-run rally will win it, and I almost got him to laugh in his anger at me. Among older Chicago baseball fans, those Jack Brickhouse catch phrases probably still resonate as much as "he gone". I know the youngest fans have fun saying "he gone" at every opportunity without understanding what it means, like the little girl (I think) who held up a "he gone" sign at the Joe Crede strike out that ended the only White Sox 2005 postseaon loss. It's the same with the kids who throw back foul balls because they think it's the thing to do because baseball announcers make such a big deal out of throwing back home run balls.

And I'm sure Jack Brickhouse was the same Jack Brickhouse, catch phrases and all, when he was doing the White Sox games up to 1967.

Contrary to myth, MLB players really didn't bunt that well back then, either.

No kidding. That was a brutal at-bat by Beckert in the 9th.

Interesting to see the Cubs pinch-hit for Kessinger with the game on the line. It was his rookie season and he was struggling offensively. It would be three more years before his first (of six) All-Star selections.

That 3rd base camera angle for balls hit to the outfield was strange even for that era. WGN also appears not to have a camera on the first base side, which left them without a way to get a good shot of right-handed hitters in the batters box. I like the field-level shot to the left of the catcher, though.

I didn't see any fans in the stands wearing team logo merchandise at all, except for a couple kids with caps. When did the marketers figure out that grown adults would spend money trying to dress like players?

Some of my cousins were at that game. One called the game the "no hitter but all walker." And while Jim Maloney struck out 12, he walked 10, hit a batter and threw almost 180 pitches.

And how about those Cincinnati uniforms with the name under the number on the back? If I recall correctly, the Sacramento Kings (who were once the Cincinnati Royals) also had that design.

Anyway, one cousin always said that three things stuck out to him about Maloney's no hitter: (1) Ernie Banks striking out on a pitch in the dirt (that should have been ball 4) to end the 8th, (2) Leo Cardenas hitting a ball off the left field foul pole for the game's only run and (3) Banks hitting into a double play to end the contest.

Interesting to see the Cubs pinch-hit for Kessinger with the game on the line. It was his rookie season and he was struggling offensively. It would be three more years before his first (of six) All-Star selections.

That 3rd base camera angle for balls hit to the outfield was strange even for that era. WGN also appears not to have a camera on the first base side, which left them without a way to get a good shot of right-handed hitters in the batters box. I like the field-level shot to the left of the catcher, though.

I didn't see any fans in the stands wearing team logo merchandise at all, except for a couple kids with caps. When did the marketers figure out that grown adults would spend money trying to dress like players?

And it was only pretty young kids that wore caps, if you wore a cap after like the 6th grade you were considered sort of a nerd.
The only caps I bought between the mid 50s and probably the late 80s were a Sox cap and Cub hat that you had to wear as a vendor when I sold Coke or peanuts in the parks in 1962.

Someone mentioned the cameras, back then they did the whole game with just 3, the CF camera, behind the plate and the 3b camera. Why the 3b camera? Because the WGN booth was located behind the Cubs dugout on the catwalk just below the upper deck. They also used that camera for the 10th inning show as Brick would do a 90 degree turn towards the camera which was located outside and just left of the booth and go on with his interview. At Comiskey the broadcasting booths were behind home plate in the upper deck and they used a camera there and also in CF and the low one behind the plate besides a 3b camera. By the late 60s both parks had first base cameras.

Every once in awhile we got a glimpse of legendary PA announcer Pat Piper, from the CF camera he was just to the left of the backstop screen on the firstbase side. Piper and Sox PA announcer Tates Johnson back then not only did the PA stuff but also supplied the umps with baseballs through out the game.